Thursday, April 4, 2019

How much or how little?


 
When Okinawa began to share karate with youth through school programs, much of what was shared rested on new basic kata. Then when Okinawan’s in Japan began teaching 4 year elective programs on karate in the Universities, they based much of that instruction on those same basic kata.

 
The point I am trying to make is those programs were at best 4 year focused after school programs. Unlikely daily in nature, and if the students used what they gained they probably would enter traditional dojo programs to continue their studies.

 
Youth in school were really not being shown karate for self defense as the primary need. In fact part of the focus originally was to enable them to work in groups to better withstand military training. Likewise in Japan those programs were based on the reality that after 4 years the members would graduate, many of them into their lifetime careers away from their University. Again the idea was they would gain something from the discipline, from the physical development that would carry on into their lives.  But I really doubt that they were driven solely from self defense.

 
Shift in time, shift in place to today where you live. When I taught youth the areas I lived were relatively safe (of course not totally safe), and then I was teaching the young. Which means even with great training what they could accomplish against an adult would then be limited.

 
I never divorced the idea that karate could be a means for self defense, never hid anything from them, but I did not make kata application study a focus of their training either. In fact from the beginning, when I first taught someone to strike, I also explained the non-striking hand moving to chamber could also become a rear elbow strike at the same time. It just is that they were made to understand every movement they learned could be employed many ways, but that was a study they would begin after shodan.

 
The town in which I lived had a 0 tolerance policy on the student employing violent methods on each other. Meaning both the attacker and the defender were in the wrong.

I explained clearly to the kids that meant they could not defend their self. But I knew in such cases they individually would have to decide how to respond. I made sure they had a selection of tools enabling them to make such a decision.
 

Before I go further, in  my 35 years teaching, I never had a student misuse their karate knowledge.

 
For I made them aware of several things. If ever they did misuse their karate, I would hear about it sooner or later, and if I heard about it from anyone else, they would be out of the program forever. I freely extend my trust one time, but if it is abused I don’t extend it a second time. A Rule I lived by.

I also made it clear is anything happens always tell an adult (a parent, a teacher, a neighbor) and if they don’t believe you keep telling another adult until someone does believe you. Of course I always included myself in that chain.

IMO, kyu students, youth or adult, need their time on developing more technique, power, focus and stronger stances. Not detailed study in the use of karate, and that is how I taught.

 
But at the same time I always recognized that the potential existed where the might use karate. So I focused them on several small sets for blocking and striking, grab defense, kick defense. Then as they got more advanced I introduced them to the Sutrisno family aikido sets, where the primary focus was not on the aikido, and associated karate, but how to enter the space an attack offers and then use that space to work to conclude the attack.

 
My focus was just to have high level performance on those sets by Sho-dan. At which time things would change to another level of learning.

 
The problem of course is how much knowledge is too much knowledge for the student, And the other side of the problem is how much is too little knowledge for the student

 
There is no simple answer for that. You have to read the threat level of your area and decide how much or how little to teach.

 
In that karate was never really designed to be a short term study, providing in the long run they are guided to get the real McCoy, it likely doesn’t matter where they begin.

 
Another past post I made addressed just this topic.

 

 

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